Why I Love Using Mentor Texts All Year (And You Should, Too!)

July 29, 2021

Teachers know that using literature is the perfect way to introduce a lesson, but starting EVERY lesson with a new book would make it impossible to teach all of the required standards! That’s why it’s important to use mentor texts: a short text like a picture book (fiction or nonfiction), a chapter from a novel, an article, a song, or a poem, which can be used to teach several skills.

Mentor Texts

Using mentor texts is a best-practice strategy that maximizes your teaching time. You’ll have more time to teach because once you’ve read the book one time, you only need to re-read or refer back to parts of it for your different mini-lessons.

And best of all, a well-chosen mentor text will be enjoyable to read, and one you will want to return to over and over!

Choosing Mentor Texts

When choosing mentor texts, you’ll want to find models that inspire students to practice a few skills.

It’s typically easy to identify reading standards that can be addressed with a book, but make sure to step back and look at the book with a writing eye, too.

A good mentor text will always have writing and language techniques that students can imitate. (This is another reason why using picture books is SO important, even in upper grades!)

More Bang For Your Buck

Of course, it’s a bonus when you can tie in another content area, too!

It’s so great when you find a book that also incorporates some science, social studies, math, or even social-emotional skills!

A new favorite of mine does just that! You do not want to miss the book, Say Something! by Peter H. Reynolds. (This link is an Amazon affiliate link- if you use it to purchase the book, I earn a few pennies which I put toward book giveaways for teachers, but it doesn’t cost you anything extra!)

In this empowering picture book, students will discover the many ways that a single voice can make a difference with our actions, our words, and our voices.

This book can be used for SO many skills across all content areas!

Peter Reynolds writes this book almost entirely in conditional statements (these are sentences with dependent clauses beginning with “If,” followed by an independent clause with advice or directions). This is the PERFECT way to help students practice writing conditionals, as it’s been modeled over and over for them in this book.

There is also a VERY clear message in this book. Students can identify key details in the text to determine the message.

(Want this lesson for free? Receive it directly in your inbox by clicking here!)

And of course, what better way to reflect the message than to show students that even kids can make a difference when they say something? Allow students time to learn about famous young people like Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, or Mari Copeny, just to name a few. I like to provide an article that can be used for more reading comprehension practice, like the one below about Mari Copeny and the Michigan Water Crisis, but you can also let them practice their research skills to learn about them, too.

There is so much more that can be done with this book and topic!! I have an entire mentor text unit that provides a week of explicit lessons and activities for reading, writing, and grammar:

This unit is a part of my Mentor Text Club: Second Edition, where teachers get a weeklong mentor text unit once a month which THEY get to have input, and even WIN the mentor text for their classroom! This club is NOT a membership- it is a one-time purchase and then all 12 weeklong units are yours to use year after year.

Want even more ideas for mentor text integration?

I have a FREE database where I have listed all of the mentor texts I’ve used in my resources, as well as all the skills covered with those books. Check it out!

Teaching Mentor Sentences in the Digital Classroom

March 26, 2020

As teaching has shifted to a digital classroom setting, so has the WAY teachers deliver instruction. Mentor sentence lessons are something I have always been a strong believer that doesn’t fit the 1:1 mold:

The class discussions drive the lessons.
They learn from each other through those discussions.
Misconceptions should be corrected right away and discussed so they aren’t “practicing the wrong way.”
Their notebook becomes a resource that they can easily flip through without “logging on” to look at examples.
And let’s be honest, it seems silly to bust out the computer for one 10 minute activity… do we really want to replace writing ONE SENTENCE A DAY with a computer?

HOWEVER…

Here we are during a global pandemic, forced to teach in isolation without a group of students sitting at our feet, notebooks in their laps, hands-up and excited to share what they see about this week’s sentence. (Did you just cry a little at that image? I know teachers are MISSING their kids and their routine. My heart goes out to you all!)

Children CRAVE routine and maintaining “normalcy.” Although there is nothing normal about attending school from home for the majority of kids, many teachers have reached out to share that their students (and they, the teachers) MISS doing mentor sentences, and asked how can they keep up with the routine in a digital classroom model.

Remember, mentor sentences are used to teach grammar and writing style OUT OF ISOLATION. It’s not just a worksheet to hand out. It shouldn’t be busywork. It requires feedback and student interaction/discussion. So, these are things to keep in mind as teaching moves to the digital classroom, too.

Read-Aloud of the Mentor Text

Students should still hear, read, or see the mentor text that contains the mentor sentence. Remember, context is important for understanding the sentence! Record yourself reading the book, or if you don’t have a copy of it at home, find a read-aloud of it on the web!

Epic! is also offering free subscriptions for educators, and there are other sites you might have access to through your school which offers books in an online library.

Digital Mentor Sentences

In the MOST ideal digital classroom setting, here’s what I would suggest:

Hop on a video conferencing platform (like Zoom, Google Hangout, or Microsoft Teams) with your students to hold your lesson just as you would if you were in the classroom. Allow students to type what they would contribute to a discussion in the chat, OR have them raise their hand and call on them one at a time to prevent everyone talking over each other in the meeting room.

Before the video meeting, give them time to work to notice on their own, just as you would in the classroom. This might mean you are “off” one day in your lessons (so you go live to discuss Day One on Day Two, for example, then they complete Day Two’s work which you go live to discuss on Day Three. That way, everyone has enough time to complete their thinking on their own).

Day ONE and Day TWO:

Send them the sentence ahead of time to work in a notebook or in a Google document so they come to the discussion prepared, just as they would if you were meeting in person.

Day THREE and Day FOUR:

Hold your video meeting to show your revised sentence and imitated sentence examples, and allow students to share what they notice that you did in your models. Then, students should work on their own to revise and imitate the sentence.

I made a free template you can use through Google Classroom or Google Drive for students to record their work daily so that you can see their progress- CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD.

REMEMBER, you don’t want students to only fill in this Google document and never have a way to share out or receive fairly immediate feedback from you, or then it’s just another worksheet and doesn’t follow the best practices of Mentor Sentences.

Day FIVE:

Send the Editing Assessment digitally for students complete.

If you own any (or all) mentor sentence units within Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3, or Just the Basics, you can find the DIGITAL VERSIONS of the Editing Assessments in the front of each unit. You may need to redownload from your purchases if you haven’t since before the Fall of 2019.

Alternatives to Live Mentor Sentence Lessons

Of course, I know not everyone has access to video platforms. Not everyone will have students that can join at the same time either, even if you do have video accessibility. Here are some other ideas:

The BARE minimum that potentially could still have an effect on learning, maintain some bit of routine, and keep the idea of best practices for the lesson would be to send the sentence weekly work activity page through Google Classroom or Google Drive. Then as students record their work daily, go in and leave notes as soon as possible, basically having a virtual conversation – CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FREE TEMPLATE.

A step up from this would be taking what students share in that Google document and compiling their answers into a shared document for all students to see. I would be hesitant to allow them all to type at once since A) students could get frustrated as students type over their responses, and B) some students would not have anything to contribute if they can’t get on right away, as all of their answers would most likely be “written” already.

You’d also still want to share your example of a revision and imitation sentence on day three and day four so students have a model to work from, just as they do in the classroom.

Photographs are Effective!

Can’t video anything but still want to show more than just a typed document? Write out the work just like you would on the board in the classroom and snap a picture! This could even be sent as a text message or email to parents if students don’t have access to a computer.

Use an app like Class Dojo or Remind to prevent sharing your cell phone number and be able to mass “text” at once.

Photos are also great if you are using an app with students like SeeSaw!

Next Level Digital Mentor Sentences Without Live Video

You don’t have to go live with students to create video mentor sentence lessons that they can watch. You can do something as simple as setting up your phone in selfie mode or using your webcam and talking through each day, or even screen-record your desktop (if you don’t want your students to see you’ve been in your pajamas! Ha!) so they can still hear your voice as you work through a lesson. This would still require you to make a video each day, but it shouldn’t take you much time to do it.

Don't skip mentor sentences during home learning days! Teaching mentor sentences digitally is still possible. Check out these tips to be successful.

Use a FREE screen recorder like Screen-Cast-O-Matic

Before recording your video, just as you would in the classroom, give them time to work to notice on their own. This might mean you are “off” one day in your lessons (so Day One video is recorded on Day Two and shared).